Christa Pike execution remains set for Sept. 30 after governor declines intervention
Tennessee’s only woman on death row said she was at peace as a Supreme Court request remained her last reported route to a reprieve.
By Georgia Hale · Staff Writer
3 min read
The Christa Pike execution remained scheduled for Sept. 30 after Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee declined to intervene, according to NBC News. Pike, 50, is Tennessee’s only woman on death row and was set to die by lethal injection.
In a letter written before she learned of Lee’s decision, Pike said she was “at peace” whether or not clemency was granted. The letter was shared with NBC News through her spiritual adviser.
Pike wrote that she was not afraid to die, though she was anxious about the execution process. NBC reported that she had spent more than three decades on death row.
If carried out, the execution would be Tennessee’s first of a woman in more than 200 years. The Death Penalty Information Center says the state last executed a woman in 1820.
Why is Christa Pike’s execution still being challenged?
After Lee’s decision, Pike’s application to the U.S. Supreme Court was her remaining reported opportunity for a stay, NBC said. The Tennessee Supreme Court had set the Sept. 30, 2026, execution date in an order dated Sept. 30, 2025, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Pike was 18 in 1995 when she participated with other teenagers in the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, whom she knew through the Knoxville Job Corps program. Pike was later convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, NBC reported.
Her lawyers have argued that the sentencing jury did not hear evidence about what they describe as a childhood marked by sexual and physical abuse, neglect, trauma-related conditions and mental illness. They also argued that being restrained on a gurney for lethal injection could cause particular psychological suffering because of Pike’s reported trauma history.
Tennessee’s attorney general’s office responded that a judge had already found it speculative that the state’s lethal-injection procedure would cause Pike greater mental harm, NBC reported. The BBC also reported that a federal appeals court concluded additional evidence concerning bipolar disorder, PTSD and brain damage largely repeated information already heard by the jury and would not have altered the result.
What sentences did the other defendants receive?
Tadaryl Shipp, Pike’s boyfriend at the time of the killing, was 17 and received life in prison with parole eligibility, NBC reported. Shadolla Peterson received probation in exchange for cooperating with authorities.
The different sentences have been part of Pike’s clemency case, but they do not resolve the separate findings in each defendant’s case. Pike’s legal team has also pointed to her age at the time of the crime in seeking mercy.
Slemmer’s mother has urged that the execution go forward, telling the BBC she wanted her daughter to finally rest. As of Sept. 28, the supplied reporting established that the execution was scheduled and litigation was pending, not that it had been carried out or stopped.
This story draws on original reporting from NBC News.